The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1887-07-05
RAIL ROBBERS.
Train Plundering as Scientific Pro-
feSsiOn.
From the .cincianats Enquirer.

flowed the downfall of the Mexican En-
pre the border counties of Texas were in
tested by whole regiments of professional
bandits-''patriots, y all of them, and using
their pistols only to ''defray expenses" as
the Salvation Army would say In Came
ron county, near the Rio Grande, the firm
of Cortina e. Bros. was doing wholesale
business in patriotism of that sort, till one
day the senior member of the concern was
arrested on charge of having cribbed the
horse of tho widow W, an American
lady who had been visiting on the Mexican
side of the river. The next day a represen-
tative of the Matamoras Ranchero called at
the headquarters of the firm.
Its an Internal piece of blackmailr
cried Cortina, junior, 'but mark my word,
well make them sorry for it. There's
some mistake about it, sure" he added after
a while ST that had been my brother
he would have kidnapped the old lady, too"
By a similar line of logic a Mexican ex-
pert would probably arrive at the conclu-
sion that no countryman of his could have
had hand in the recent Texas train rob-
berries. On the first OCCASION the passengers
were not molested at ALL The last time
they were let off with an optional contri-
button. That latter transaction, especially,
would have struck a Standardization
critic as wholly unprofeSsional' A wealthy
candidate for the Presidency of the Repub
lie might content himself with stopping
train for the purpose of removing" a po-
litical rival, but q specialist should have
business experience enough to know that
only a thorough and impartial search can
do justice to all parties concerned. A sin
single deviation from that rule once lost
Mai. Jeaningros the prize of perilous ex-
petition for the capture of an army chest,
which disguised paymaster managed to
smuggle through in a shabby-looking tool
box.
A NEW ENTERPRISE.
When the first regular train was put on
the -Cordilleras line from Vera Cruz
to Pueblo the cavaliers of the road scruti-
nized the phenomenon with glad surprise,
at once approaching the business advan-
tages of the novel invention. Stage
coaches could take to the woods or change
their route altogether (the Vera Cruz dill
gencia having thus lodged the best-laid
traps but the preordained track of a train
promised to raise interrogation to the rank
of an exact science. From November, 1869,
to May, 1870, the passenger train Of the
main line was robbed about once week,
and by some queer coincidence nearly al
ways on "crowd days. no matter how cum
ninglY the depot agent might have SNUG
gled in his passengers in the hustle of mis-
cellaneous traffic 1t seemed clear that the
patriots" must have an inside spy, but
constant change of employees evidently
failed to diminish their sources of informa-
ton. Railway patrols were equally una
vailing A force of mounted rangers
secured the country in every direction,
south and north of the track, but that track
led through a rougher mountain country
than the eastern division of the Denver and
. Rio Grande road. Regular train guards
would have strained the resources of the
impecunious company, but had at last to be
adopted as a lesse- vi.
FRUITLESs PRECAUTIONS.
Uniformed beef-eaters to the number of
twenty and upward were hauled to and fro
on the line of the most dangerous section
from Plan del Rio to Amozo0; but the raid
ers got their work in all the same Twice
the westbound train was robbed in the open
prairie within gunshot of regular station
twice the track of the lower section was OBJ
structed in q way that prevented the trains
from meeting at the dinner station, thus
putting the eaStbound passengers at the
mercy of the bandits, and on one occasion
the car containing the beef-eaters was UNI
coupled and left on the track, while the rest
of the train pursued its ambushed way in
charge of an improvised conductor.
A COUNTERFEIT.
But as the excess of all evils tends to sug-
gest the means of relief, the afflicted Off
Gals at last bethought themselves of invok-
ing the aid Of the contra guerilla, mounted
detectives" as we might define them,
quasi organized body of frontier guards,
subsidized by the general government and
employed chiefly in the neighborhood of the
Indian reservations south and southwest of
the Rio Grande The leader of those rangers
at that time engaged III guarding the mines
OF Chihuahua, which has been repeatedly
raided by the moss-troopers of Pancho Par
ras, but after meeting the agent Of the
", no had n
terview with his ablest lieutenant, a noted
partisan of the Juarists, and ready cham
piOn OF every desperate enterprise. The
ParsOn" (El Cura), as his soldiers called
him, in allusion to his favorite disguise, at
once closed the bargain but stipulated for
absolute secrecy and caIte-blanche privileges
for all preparatory arrangements. Three
DAYS after FL Cura and picked posse of his
sharp-shooters embarked for Vera Cruz I'M
der various DISCUSSES. During the first half
of MAY, 1870, the spies of the bandits had
no reason for special apprehensions. A new
brakeman or two was added to the force of
the freight department, the baggage master
OF the passenger train was recommended for
position in the custom house, and his sue
cessor was temporarily accommodated with
several assistants; new huckster appeared
ON the platform of the dinner station and
seeiNad busy enough to justify his engage
ment g two partners, but the trains came
and went as usual; the Dee1-eaUerS were
again outwitted, and ON May IS a train was
for the last time stopped i'll the open vega
and ransacked from end to end.
FLYING ARTILLERY.
That outrage furnished a welcome pre-
text, and the next day the train started out
with a howit2er conSpicuously mounted on
the weaker-deck OF the tender. On that
isolated redoubt the commissioners might
a. well have mounted a wash tub, for in the
absence of an ordinance guard there was
pothing to prevent the robber from collar
ing the engineer and pitching his battery
overheard but the arrangement served as
an excellent blind; an innovation Of some
kind had been visibly adopted, and the pa
triots might be expected to take their meas
ures accordingly. Those measures were
simplified by another equally futile change
of programme The old train guards THE
beef-eaters) were now transposed to an open
platform car drawn by special engine and
following the train at a distance varying
from hundred yards to half mile; for
nothing seemed now easier than to run the
main train ahead and detain the rear-guard
by some sudden destruction.
A BAITED TRAP.
Traffic of some sort or other seemed, new
ertheless, to increase, for the passenger
80, i,s now ha0on RI parly the double bag